November 2009

The Flower Press - - a newsletter of the Lincolnshire Garden ClubNovember 2009

34th Annual Benefit

A Fabulous Fall Faire

Friday, November 6, 2009

7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Jeanne Maine Top’ home

14532 River Oaks Drive, Lincolnshire

The
invitation for the benefit is attached at the end of the newsletter.Please note that they are due by October 27th
so that Meri and Jeanne can determine the appropriate amount of food to
prepare.

Driving and Parking Directions for the benefit:In Lincolnshire, from the intersection of
Half Day Road and Elm Rd/Oxford Rd (Lincolnshire Tennis Club is on northwest
corner), go north on Elm about 1/2 mile.River Oaks will be on your left and Jeanne’s house will be on the
northwest corner.River Oaks is a
narrow, windy street, so please avoid parking on it.Rather, park in the Tamarak Camp parking lot
that is located on the east side of Elm Rd, about 1/2 block north of River Oaks
Drive.

From
the President’s Desk

Jan Stefans, President

Come
one, come all to the Fabulous Fall Faire Benefit, Friday, November 6th 7-10
p.m. at Jeanne Top's house. The evening hours should enable spouses and
friends with daytime jobs to attend.There are things for everyone to enjoy.Come sample Meri and Jeanne's finger food.Bid on wonderful silent auction items for
which Dawn has scoured the community.Purchase raffle tickets from our quilt group for a chance to win a spectacular
fall table runner.Satisfy your sweet
tooth with purchases from our bakeshop.Take a chance at going home with more money than you arrived with by
buying tickets for our Half a Chance. Be sure to stay until the end when
our grand finale will be our live auction, led by Drew Pinter as
auctioneer.I look forward to seeing you
and your friends at this great event.

MUSINGS OF AN OLD ROSE GARDENER

By Elaine Petersen

Having
just returned from our October meeting, I have been musing about our delightful
speaker, Trudi Temple. What fascinating woman! What a full and interesting
life! Her philosophy and gardening techniques reminded me of another well-known
gardener, Ruth Stout. (Well, maybe not so well known unless you are as old as I
am!)Ruth was a staunch advocate of
organic gardening before it became as popular as it is now. Years ago I chanced
upon Ruth’s book and became a follower of her philosophy of gardening.Her book, The Ruth Stout No-Work GardenBook,
became my gardening “bible”.Alas, now I
can’t find my time- worn copy.Did I
lend it to any one of you?

Born
in Kansas in 1884, Ruth was a Quaker whose family worked a farm.She lived into her nineties, died in 1980,
and developed a reputation for being brilliant, if eccentric. Her famous
brother Rex was also a gardener, entrepreneur and author who penned the Nero
Wolfe mysteries.Ruth moved to New York
City.At the age of 45, she married,
moved to the country and began gardening the hard way- according to the experts
of her day.But she quickly realized
that their way required lots of digging and hard work.She experimented with her own garden and
realized that great flower and vegetable garden could be grown with little or
no digging, little or no work, and lots of hay!The secret to Ruth Stout’s “No Dig/No Work” method is keeping a thick
mulch of any vegetable matter that rots on the garden. She didn’t bother with a
separate compost pile-her garden was her compost pile. (Think Trudi Temple.)
Now this may sound a bit revolting but then Ruth was revolutionary.But think of the work you no longer have to
do when you choose this effective gardening method!

No more hoeing (which can damage the soil structure
and bring to the surface unwanted weed seeds that have been slumbering in the
soil for decades).No more weeding, no
more composting, no more hard physical labor:Just lots of flowers, vegetables and healthy soil. Older gardeners and
those with back trouble swear by Stout.For anyone who wants to follow Ruth’s dynamic example there is a Ruth
Stout video and among her last works were How
to Stay Sane and Fit Over Ninety.

Each autumn I am in desperate need of fortitude to
weather the next month without succumbing to the flurry of“fall cleanup” offers by local “
landscapers”.So, if you are secretly
hiding my copy of No Work, please
return it to me before I fall away and rake my gardens clean.Mother Nature never hired landscapers to blow
the richly hued fallen leaves out of our wonderful beautiful forest
preserves.

A solitary
maple on a Woodside flames in single scarlet, recalls nothing so much as the
daughter of a noble house dressed for a fancy ball, with the whole family gathered
round to admire her before she goes. - Henry James

MORE MUSINGS FROM AN OLD
GARDENER (aka Elaine)

Our electric power went out last night about
8:30.After scurrying about in the dark
to find some matches to light the votive candles, I discovered there wasn’t
enough light to read by so there was nothing left to do but settle down and
wait for sleep. As I lay comfortably in bed with my cat purring contentedly
beside me, waiting for Morpheus to take me to another world, I became acutely
aware of the blessed quiet.No
disturbing conversation emanated from the TV, no furnace motor or fan hummed:
just absolute quiet.That is what it
must have been like when the indigenous Indians lived here on this land.Only the occasional hoot of an owl or the
snapping of a twig underfoot as a raccoon or possum prowled the forest floor in
search of food broke the silence.Our
early settlers experienced this calming peace every night.Yes, I know they labored hard and had worries
and endured illness as all mankind does.But they also enjoyed a healthy quiet that we today cannot find in our
daily lives unless the power goes out.

WANTED

Horticulture
Articles for
our newsletter.Submit to our newsletter
editor Jeanne Top at thetops4@comcast.net.

Bake Sale
Items for the November 6th Benefit.Bolster
our benefit profits by contributing to the benefit bake sale.Please keep the following in mind when
selecting and packaging your donation:

·Make small portions, i.e. six brownies/cookies, small cakes, etc.

·Jar offerings such as mixes for soups, cookies or spices make really
nice hostess gifts.

·Place items on clear plates or in clear plastic bags (Jan can supply
these if needed.)

·Label items, pointing out any ingredients that might cause an allergic
reaction.

·Disposal of old major appliances:Environmental Field Services, 800-480-4337.This service will collect appliances for a
fee that is much lower than the fee Waste Management charges.

·Recycle old sneakers:Boxes for
sneakers are located at the Vernon Hills Public works building (490 Greenleaf)
or the Vernon Hills Park District (635 Aspen Rd.)

·Household Chemical Waste:Year-round collections are taken by appointment at SWALCO’s permanent
facility located at 1311 N. Estes St., Gurnee.Mobile events are held periodically from April through November.Dates are posted on their websitewww.lakecountyil.gov/swalco

Upcoming
Lecture at Ryerson

Wednesday, October 217:30–9pm

The Future of Plants in a Rapidly
Changing World:An evening
with Sir Peter Crane

Distinguished
evolutionary biologist Sir Peter Crane
will visit Ryerson Woods to share his perspective on threats to the world’s
plants, concern over the erosion of genetic diversity and exciting conservation
strategies. This fall Crane takes the helm of the Yale School of
Forestry and Environmental Studies as its dean. He served as
the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London from
1999-2006 and was knighted for services to horticulture and
conservation. Crane's own research integrates studies of living and
fossil plants to understand large-scale patterns and processes of plant
evolution. He is engaged in a variety of initiatives focused on the
conservation of plant diversity.Coffee,
tea and cookies will be served.

New ideas will be highlighted in one edition of the Newsletter and then moved to our the Recycling section on the Lincolnshire Garden Club website (www.lincolnshiregardenclub.com/recyling). This sight will include, among other things, upcoming special recycling events and a list of recycling locations for specific items.